International Cooperation

CEN and CENELEC 'Ambitions to 2020' addresses their global influence objectives. It entails their efforts to support and enhance the competitiveness of European industries in global markets as well as their contribution to the removal of technical barriers to trade worldwide, based on a strengthened relationship with the International Standardization Organization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), complemented by a network of partnerships and a series of projects.

Region to region cooperation

The European Union is known as the most advanced and successful model of regional integration, due to a regulatory approach that goes beyond tariff and non-tariff barriers issues. CEN and CENELEC play a crucial role in supporting the European integration through standardization, bridging the gap between regulatory expectations and market needs and supporting the free circulation of goods in the EU and European Economic Area (EEA).

CEN and CENELEC natural counterparts are other regional standards organizations, with whom CEN and CENELEC have signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs). Such agreements are based on the reciprocity principle and enable a fruitful dialogue at strategic and technical levels. They notably help exchange good practices or bring together relevant experts around issues of mutual interest.

Cooperating with National Standardization Bodies

In 2016 CEN and CENELEC have revised their foreign partnerships concepts, proposing new models of cooperation to the National Standardization Bodies (NSBs) and national Electrotechnical Commission (NCs) outside the 34 countries already covered by the CEN and CENELEC membership. According to their links with the European Union, wish to participate in technical activities and their interest in the results of the European Standardization process, we propose the following models:

on an exceptional basis, Cooperation Agreements can also concluded with the NSB/NC of a country that has a strategic importance for the EU.

Projects

CEN and CENELEC manage or are involved in a variety of projects supporting their international cooperation goals. These projects respond to particular needs and may cover activities as the support to the development of a sound regional quality infrastructure, the promotion of the European Standardization System (ESS) and the enhancement of standardization-related strategic and technical dialogues with Europe’s key partners around the world.

CEN and CENELEC Global Outreach

Twice a year CEN and CENELEC issue the Global Outreach report (pdf format) that provides an overview of technical alignment achieved with non-European partners through the adoption of identical standards with a sectoral approach. It offers a dynamic perspective, showing what is the level of alignment with ISO, IEC, where are European Standards adopted, where non-European experts contributing to the CEN and CENELEC technical work as well as what are the main achievements streaming from different agreements CEN and CENELEC have with national and regional standardization bodies around the world.